Agency Cites Wrath Of God

A New York shop found itself under the scrutiny of a higher authority last month. Furman-Roth offended a few listeners with a confession-themed radio ad for client Car Cash, but the angry calls weren’t a worry at first. In the ads a character tells a priest how quickly and easily he sold his car to Car Cash. “Is that a sin, my son?” the priest says incredulously. The man replies, “No, Father later that day I took some of the money and ” An announcer then breaks in with contact information. The client’s toll-free hotline received complaints from a few priests, but company president Bruce Baron told the shop to keep airing the spot. He decided to pull it when someone claiming to be from Archdiocese of New York called. “The client said, ‘I don’t want God as an enemy,'” said agency president Ernie Roth. “He had a sense of humor about the whole thing.” Though an individual priest from the office may have called, the Archdiocese “did not get involved in any official capacity,” said representative Joe Zwilling. –Emily Fromm